but last night, oprah winfrey and david letterman shared the stage. winfrey as letterman's guest at the speaking series he hosts at his alma mater ball state university in indiana. while the late night host is known for his comedy, this conversation with oprah winfrey was no nonsense. >> ladies and gentlemen, do me a favor, please welcome oprah winfrey. >> the talk show titans held their conversation in front of a packed house at ball state university. some members of the 3,000-person audience camped out in the cold for tickets. what they got was a frank discussion of oprah winfrey's life and career. winfrey said her first notion of entering broadcasting came when she was a young girl growing up in the rural south. >> it was like an apartheid state for black people. we were called colored people then. i had no idea that television was a possibility for a black woman or a colored woman at the time. when i first saw the supremes on "the ed sullivan show" in 1968, it was like a miracle. >> letterman didn't pull any punches, asking winfrey about the abuse